voted the leisure of six years to forming a collection of books with perseverance and intelligence; then he suddenly stopped and turned over to Bangs & Company, the auctioneers, the greater part of his collection, and awaited the result with interest. I say "with interest" advisedly, for the result fully justified his judgment. In his "Record" he gives the date of acquisition, together with the cost of each item, in one column, and in another the selling price. He also states whether the item was bought of a bookseller or a collector, or at auction. He had spent a trifle over ten thousand dollars, and his profit almost exactly equalled his outlay. I said his profit, but I have used the wrong word. His profit was the pleasure he received in discovering, buying, and owning the treasures which for a time were in his possession. The difference in actual money between what he paid and what he received, some ten thousand dollars, was the reward for his industry and courage in paying what doubtless many people supposed to be extravagant prices for his books. Let us examine one only. It is certainly not a fair example, but it happens to interest me. He had a copy of Keats's "Poems," 1817, with an inscription in the poet's handwriting: "My dear Giovanni, I hope your eyes will soon be well enough to read this with pleasure and ease." There were some other inscriptions in Keats's hand, and for this treasure Arnold paid a bookseller, in 1895, seventy-one dollars. At the auction in 1901 it brought five hundred dollars, To the Mikes M_ at Hastings What though while the wonder f while the wonders of Nature exploung, I cannot your lett, marzy fools leks, attend; for listen to accents, that almost adoring Ole's Cynthia's face the Enthus car's friend. you Get over the sleep whence the Mountain Stream gushes, I is Man, and the flowers ร see you are ω the moon heamy air! dew are yet drooping. heading the verge of the Sea. And now! Ab! I see it - you just now are stooping If a Chemb on Prmons of octuer des. Had brought me a of octuer descending, me a Gem from the fret work of heaven, and suncles with his Star cherung vore sweetly blending. The Blessings of Tighe had melodiously gener; It had not created a wanner emotion, Train the mesent, fairs Nymphs, I was blest with from you, than the shell from the bright golden sands which the Emerald waves at your. sands of the Ocean, •feet gladly threw. and it subsequently passed into the Van Antwerp collection, finally going back to London, where it was sold in 1907 for ninety pounds, being bought by Quaritch. Finally it passed into the possession of the late W. H. Hagen and, at the sale of his library, in May, 1918, was knocked down to "G.D.S." for $1950. From him I tried to secure it, but was "too late."1 My copy of the Poems has, alas, no inscription, but it cost me in excess of five hundred dollars; and a well-known collector has just paid Rosenbach nine thousand dollars for Keats's three slender volumes, each with inscriptions in the poet's hand. Three into nine is a simple problem: even I can do it; but the volume of "Poems" is much rarer than "Endymion" or "Lamia." 1 The facsimile on page 105 is from the original manuscript of John Keats's "To some Ladies," published in Keats's first volume (1817). The ladies were the sisters of George Felton Mathew, to whom Keats also addressed a poem. It will be observed that in the second verse he used the word "gushes" at the end of the third as well as the first line. This error does not occur in the printed text. On the other hand the MS. shows a correction which has never been made in the printed text, where the word "rove" is corrected to "muse." There is an interesting communication in the Athenæum, April 16, 1904, by H. Buxton Forman, anent this holograph. To Algernon Sunburne with all affection IV ASSOCIATION" BOOKS AND FIRST EDITIONS No books have appreciated more in value than presentation or association volumes, and the reason is not far to seek. Of any given copy there can hardly be a duplicate. For the most part presentation copies are first editions-plus. Frequently there is a note or a comment which sheds biographical light on the author. In the slightest inscription there is the record of a friendship by means of which we get back of the book to the writer. And speaking of association books, every one will remember the story that General Wolfe, in an open boat on the St. Lawrence as he was being rowed down the stream to a point just below Quebec, recited the lines from Gray's "Elegy," "The boast of heraldry, the pomp of pow'r, And all that beauty, all that wealth, e'er gave The paths of glory lead but to the grave," adding, "I would rather be the author of that piece than have the honor of beating the French to-morrow." When Wolfe left England he carried with him a copy of the "Elegy," the gift of his fiancée, Miss Katherine Lowther. He learned the poem by heart, he underscored his favorite lines, among them the passage quoted; he filled the book with his notes. After his death the book and a miniature of the lady were returned to her, and only a few days ago this book, a priceless volume of unique association interest, was offered for sale. The first man who saw it bought it. He had never bought a fine book before, but he could not resist this one. When I heard of the transaction I was grieved and delighted — grieved that so wonderful a volume had escaped me, delighted that I had not been subjected to so terrible a temptation. What was the price of it? Only the seller and the buyer know, but I fancy some gilt-edged securities had to be parted with. How the prices of these books go a-soaring is shown by the continuous advance in the price of a copy of Shelley's "Queen Mab." It is a notable copy, referred to in Dowden's "Life of Shelley." On the fly leaf is an inscription in Shelley's hand, "Mary Wollstonecraft Godwin, from P.B.S."; inside of the back cover Shelley has written in pencil, "You see, Mary, I have not forgotten you"; and elsewhere in the book in Mary's hand, we read, "This book is sacred to me, and as no other creature shall ever look into it, I may write in it what I please. Yet what shall I write? That I love the author beyond all powers of expression and that I am parted from him"; and much more to the same effect. At the Ives sale in 1891 this volume of supreme interest brought $190; in 1897, at the Frederickson sale, it brought $615; and a year ago a dealer sold it for $7500; and cheap at that, I say, for where will you find another? |